How and why are there no UPC Codes on late 90's AES games?

I noticed the other day that several of my AES games, stuff from 1999 and beyond don't have UPC codes on the back of the insert.
Namely these games I have don't have UPC codes:
MOTW
Slug 3,4,5
Sengoku 3
SVC

1.) Any of you legal afficianados know why there aren't UPC codes on these games?
2.) Is this legal? I'm sure Shawn, NCS, Trieu, and other distributors have thought of this already.


I'm just really curious is all... Thanks

Barcodes aren't required by law.

They only facilitate easier inventory controls. Since the US games did not receive mass general distribution their neccesity was negligable.

Not that I know any of this for a fact, but....


I don't think there's any law that says you HAVE to have a UPC code on anything. AFAIK, they're just used to track stock and make the check-out process more streamlined at cash registers.

My guess is that there aren't UPCs on Neo games because they aren't sold in places that have a real need for them. Maybe a Web store that keeps a lot of Neo games (i.e., neostore) would find them useful for keeping track of stock, but they presumably have ways of keeping track of these things without "official" UPCs.

Basically as I have seen it, there is not a need for barcodes. However, since most stores use them as a standard there is an official process to getting your company and product assigned a barcode.

Basically you don't need a barcode, but at the same time you can't just make one for yourself. Since most stores want barcodes...you basically are in a catch-22, pay-out for the barcode or risk not getting your product carried.


There are some products like books that require the creation of an ISBN number, but I do not think it applies to video games.

SNK USA used to put barcode stickers on some (or maybe most?) of the carts. I have a few like that that came from SNK USA, I even had a few JP carts that had English language barcode stickers on the back. ho hum

The # of carts made was so small that a UPC code was unwarranted.